Is All Hate Created Equal?

In a country that discusses tolerance as a rule and acceptance as an ideal, do Americans find some hate speech more, well, hateful than others?

In a recent article published by the Christian Science Monitor, correspondent Omar Sacirbey thinks the answer might be a resounding yes.

The latest debate has been sparked by Michael Savage's comments on his nationally syndicated radio show telling listeners that Muslims should be deported, along with rude comments about what they could do with their religion.

Although a number of individuals and corporations have since pulled their advertisements from the show, the comments did not create the same furor that got radio host Dan Imus fired after he denigrated a black women's basketball team. This has led many to question whether the consequences for hate speech against Muslims is less harsh than against other groups.

As the article expounds:

Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson resigned his post as head of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York after suggesting in October that black people are less intelligent than other races. ABC executives decided this year not to invite actor Isaiah Washington back to the cast of the hit TV show "Grey's Anatomy" after he allegedly used an antigay slur. When presidential candidate Jesse Jackson failed to distance himself from anti-Semitic remarks made by Louis Farrakhan in 1983, his campaign suffered. Sen. Trent Lott (R) of Mississippi resigned as majority leader in 2002 after jokingly suggesting that America would be better off today had Strom Thurmond, the late South Carolina senator, won the presidency in 1948, when he campaigned as a segregationist.

On the other hand, presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani has endured little scrutiny for touting an endorsement this month from TV evangelist and onetime presidential candidate Pat Robertson, who has called Islam "Satanic" and the prophet Muhammad "a wild-eyed fanatic."

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 35 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of Muslims, and increase from 29 percent in March of 2002. The same survey shows a rise in the number of people who say Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence.

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, is tolerance a rule only for those we believe deserve tolerance?

New Survey on Muslim Americans

The Pew Research Center just released a survey on Muslim in America entitled “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream” which collected information ranging from religious beliefs to thoughts about foreign policy and terrorism. The survey is over 100 pages long so here are some interesting highlights, which contain very distorded information. (Statistics about Muslims in European, African, and Middle Eastern Countries and about Christians in the United States come from other surveys conducted by the Pew center in 2006).

One important issue the survey asked about was Islamic extremism and suicide bombings. According to the poll, Muslim Americans are more likely to reject Islamic extremism than Muslims who live in Europe. When asked the question “Can suicide bombings of civilian targets to defend Islam be justified?” 1% answered often, 7 % said sometimes, 5 % said rarely, and 78% said never. (53) Also, “younger Muslim in the U.S. are more likely than older Muslim Americans to express a strong sense of Muslim identity, and are much more likely to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified.” (1)

Muslims in France, Spain, and Great Britain are twice as likely to say suicide bombings are justified (around 16%), while 46% of Muslims in Nigeria answered often/sometimes and in Jordan and Egypt around 28% answered often/sometimes. (53) Therefore, the survey concludes that “absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.” (1,2)

When it comes to assimilation, “the survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. With the exception of very recent immigrants, most report that a large proportion of their closest friends are non-Muslims." (2) In addition, when asked if they thought of themselves first as Muslim or American, 47% answered Muslim. Interestingly, according to another Pew Center poll, in Britain 81% of Muslims see themselves as Muslim first while 42% of Christians view themselves as Christians first. (31)

Concerning the issue of Israel, the survey found that 61% of Muslim Americans say that a way can be found for the state of Israel to exist so that the rights of the Palestinians are addressed. (55) Only 16 percent said that “the rights and needs of the Palestinians cannot be taken care of as long as Israel exists”, which is low compared to the response to this question in Morocco, 90%, and Lebanon, 75%.

The survey also compares Muslim practices with Christian practices. One of the questions asked was "Is the Koran/Bible the literal word of God?" 86% of Muslims said the Koran is the word of God, and 50% said it is literally word for word, while 78% of Christians said the Bible if the word of God, and only 40% say that it is literally word for word. 72% of Muslims said that religion was very important in their lives, compared to 60% of Christians.

These are only a few issues that the survey covers. It also asks questions about issues such as President Bush, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and views on homosexuality. You don’t need to read the whole document, you can just look at the boxes with the survey information on each page. The survey can be found here.